Many pieces of maintenance and other types of equipment are typically used to service an aircraft while the aircraft is on the ground. Such aircraft related equipment may include, for example, conditioning, maintaining, powering, lighting, and servicing equipment. These pieces of equipment are commonly referred to as ground support equipment (GSE) or aircraft ground equipment (AGE). GSE may include AGE. GSE may be used to service other types of equipment besides aircraft. For example, in a military setting some equipment serviced by GSE includes HUMMERS® (high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle), tanks, and trucks. In the commercial airline industry, other types of equipment may be serviced by GSE.
GSE and AGE in military settings are typically powered by diesel engines that utilize reclaimed jet fuel such as JP8 fuel. Many types of GSE and AGE are configured as carts or trailers that are towed into place using a powered vehicle such as a bobtail or tug type vehicle.
GSE and AGE are typically operating 24 hours a day, 7 days per week around every aircraft that is on the ground between flights or other equipment that is intended to be in use (i.e., operating in the field during a military operation). GSE and AGE include, for example, power units, heating units, air conditioning units, nitrogen generators, lighting units, low pacs (low pressure air compressors), and other devices. Some of these pieces of equipment require fuel and servicing as often as every 1 to 2 hours, while other types of equipment require maintenance and servicing only a few times per day.
GSE and AGE are usually fueled and serviced by hooking up the GSE/AGE to a bobtail or tug, delivering the GSE/AGE to a fueling and/or service area remote from the aircraft or other equipment being serviced (“the equipment”), and then returning the GSE/AGE back to the equipment at a later time. During the time in which the GSE/AGE is being serviced and fueled at the remote location, a separate GSE/AGE may be delivered and put in use in its place at the equipment to ensure that the equipment receives the needed services at all times. The remote location where the GSE/AGE is serviced and fueled may be a hanger or other designated area that can be as far away as, for example, two or more miles from the location of the equipment. As such, significant amounts of time, man power, and fuel are needed to transport the GSE/AGE to and from the fueling and service areas.
In military applications, it is common for squadrons or “packages” of the equipment to be deployed. Typically, the GSE/AGE for the equipment are deployed with these squadrons. In order to transport the GSE/AGE to the deployed location, the GSE/AGE must receive special services to prepare them for transport. These special services often require towing of the GSE/AGE to a remote service hanger or other location where the services are conducted. These services are often time consuming and labor intensive, and may pose environmentally hazardous conditions due to the special nature of the servicing, such as defueling.
A need exists to address these and other issues related to servicing GSE/AGE.